Our long-time friend Günter Hoppe provided us with slides from the Circus Circus Tournament of Champions competition in Las Vegas. Thanks to the Model Airplane editorial team, we were able to reconstruct the old report from MAN March 1978. Here is the result:
In February 78 month’s column, I went on at great length regarding the 12 full days of the dual-event 1977 Tournament of Champions, told of the above-and-beyond deeds of the hotel staff and all those associated with the conduct of the T.O.C. All of this was right off the top of my head: you know how some people get when they sit down at the typewriter, and there are those who say “I run off a bit at the mouth.” But never did I have my words come back to me so rapidly and with so much emphasis. It’s apparent that Bill Bennett felt the pressure equally as much as I, as just a week ago I received the following letter:
Dear Walter:
As you know, you and I, as well as several other people involved in our Tournament of Champions, have been giving a lot of thought and discussion as to exactly what we should do in 1978.”
“Since the 1978 Tournament of Champions will be all standoff scale models of full-size aerobatic airplanes, I feel that we still have quite a bit to offer to the scale buffs. “
I know of nothing more satisfying than being part of and working with an experimental program, watching it grow each succeeding year, until it reaches the peak and was little or no place to move forward.
And this has been the track record for the International Tournament of Champions, now shortened to “Tournament of Champions,” and, with our proclivity for initials, the “T.O.C.” Starting in 1974 with an experimental concept of more difficult maneuvers, it has, by 1977, just about used up any possibility of adding further complexity to some of our old standards or placing new and previously unheard-of maneuvers into our pattern schedules.
Let me give you a few examples: Qualifying Schedule A had a Double Avalanche, Triangle Rolling Loop, Six-sided Inside Loop, and a Snapping Loop; Schedule B had a Snapping Top Hat, Square Horizontal Eight, Square Inside Rolling Loop, Reverse Knife Edge, and a Reverse Roll; Schedule C included a Square Outside Rolling Loop, Reverse Point Roll, Reverse Circus Eight, Six-sided Outside Loop, and a Rolling Circle. These were the new ones; the balance were some of those used in previous years as separators. I won’t at-tempt a description of these maneuvers, but if interested, suggest that you study the “Patterns in the Air” drawing supplied to each of the competitors and included in our Layout for this article.
Each of the qualifying schedules consisted of eight maneuvers which had to be performed twice before two different sets of judges: a total of 48 flight maneuvers for each of the competitors. Top scores for each round were added, and that was the total qualifying score. The Finals schedule included 12 maneuvers flown in four rounds before 10 judges: six maneuvers were preselected by the committee and six maneuvers were drawn from a hat by the competitors, and each maneuver in the schedule had been flown twice by every competitor.
How would you have liked to have been one of the five finalists faced with four flights consisting of a Double Avalanche, Reverse Knife Edge, Snapping Top Hat, Reverse Point Roll, Reverse Circus Eight, and a Rolling Circle (these were the preselected maneuvers) and those picked from a hat, the Six-Sided Outside Loop, Inverted Reverse Spin, Reverse Spin, Reverse Cuban Eight, Reverse Top Hat, and Square Horizontal Eight. That’s a bit something at 9:00 A.M., for a slightly overcast but calm Sunday morning!
Only thing calm was the wind, as the pilot requested that they be alone in the pit area—no cameramen, press or wellwishers. That was the hardest job I had for the ten days of the combined Scale and Pattern contest persons with cameras can be persistent, and who can blame them: all that distance, and all they want is the one pic!
I have gotten a bit ahead of myself, but thought it best to get the flight maneuvers out into the open, so you can understand just what the T.O.C. is all about! With the realization that we have gone just about as far as we can with standard pattern maneuvers and their manipulation, some decisions had to be made, and thus the “Prototype Aerobatics 1978” article in our February issue, and the sudden turn our T.O.C. has taken. Again, we are innovating, but now to the ’77 Pattern!
This year’s activities showed quite clearly that most, if not all, of the competitors really did their homework, as last year’s terror maneuvers were now just another set of maneuvers (this alone would be justification for our change in ’78) : the Rolling Circle and the Circus Eight, this time reversed, were an average “7” maneuver, with quite a few 8’s and 9’s. To watch Hanno Prettner perform each of these maneuvers is a treat every pattern man should have at least once in his life, and there were others who performed equally as well, but not every time.
His consistency is amazing. Much the same as at the World Championships, he led in each round or sched-ule, with only a 10-point spread between his highest and lowest rounds: 335, 345, 339.
Actually, the flying was so dose that Gunter Hoppe of West Germany and our own Dave Brown wound up tied in the qualifying, each with a total score of 943 points, and placement was decided by single highest round; Dave took third Position by only 4 points. There was still another tie: this one between Dean Koger and Phil Kraft in the third round, as each came up with a 263 top score.
The top five qualifying positions saw little changing around from the first round, with only one face showing in that schedule, and it was that of Dean Koger of the United States, who took fifth spot, bumping Ivan Kristensen, fifth-place qualifier. In the second round, we had Koger bumped out by fifth-place finalist Bruno Giezendanner, and Ivan still not appearing.
The third round had Italy’s Benito Bertolani bumping West Germany’s Gunter Hoppe out of the top five for that round, and Giezendanner bumped Dave Brown for that round as well. However, Dave’s total for three rounds was sufficient to fit him into the third slot, and Hoppe’s was sufficient for the fourth slot, Kristensen’s for the fifth slot—and that is how qualifying finished. For the remaining spots, it was Giezendanner sixth; Bertolani of Italy seventh; eighth, Mark Radcliff, U.S.A.; ninth, Steve Helms, U.S.A.; 10th, Tony Bonetti, U.S.A.; 1 lth, G. Naruki, Japan; T. Okumura, also Japan, 12th; Australia’s Jeff Tracey, 13th; Dean Koger, U.S.A., 14th; Phil Kraft, U.S.A., 15th; 16th, Dennis Donohue, U.S.A.; W. Salkowski, U.S.A., 17th; U.S.A.’s Fred Kugel, 18th; 19th, Ron Chidgey, U.S.A.; 20th, John Brink, So. Africa; 21st, Mexico’s Luis Castaneda; and Terry Cooper of England in 22nd spot.
Terry was one of three who ran into problems, as he wiped out his plane in the first flight of Schedule B by giving the wrong rudder command during the Re-verse Roll. As Terry had only one plane with him, that finished him for the T.O.C. Ivan Kristensen, while practicing the day before the first round, unfortunately coupled his flap servo to his aileron and vice versa. Thus, his first aileron command brought about the greatest cart-wheeling act seen in some time, with the end result of his losing both his wing tips and quite a bit of pride.
The evening of the same day found Ivan, pride behind him, attempting 1 scrounge up some block balsa and adhesive, to replace the two destroyed wing tips. Stores were closed, so Bill Benne came through with some %” sheet balsa sharp knife, and a bottle of Satellite City’s Blue Line Hot Stuff. Ivan set abo instant laminations 4″ deep with the H Stuff, shaping and sanding to fit the wir tip, and more Hot Stuff, and the new wit tips were in place. Now the coup de grace, two bottles of his wife’s very pink nail polish, to finish off the tips. The nail polish: was a perfect match for the Circus Circus pink with which Ivan finished his plane-if you don’t believe it try to point out t] difference in the color shot on either pa, 33 or 34 of this issue.
The third episode really could have be, tragic, but fortunately Wolfgang Matt goes with God, as in his first flight of the finals, he began to get what he though was interference, quite severe and nothing like an ordinary glitch—something really strong was hitting his servos and his plane snap-rolled about twenty feet off the run-way. He scrambled back onto the runway, only to find that his batteries for his flight pack were practically dead. Now still an-other scramble, this time to his car and the fast-rate battery charger, and he managed to get a sufficiently strong charge in the batteries to swing his second flight of the finals. Wolfgang managed to keep his cool throughout the whole thing, but there was a bit of tenseness in the pit area, with the crew attempting to ascertain the problem.
Unlike the Scale flying days, the weather and wind were perfect all four days of the pattern flying. Temperature was quite moderate: a little cool in the early morning, but in the seventies through most of the day, and enough sun for me to get my usual sunburn and peeling nose—matter of fact, I had to break down for a hat the last two days, as the burn was becoming quite strong.
Twelve judges were on hand this year, working in two groups of five each, with two alternates for each of the qualifying rounds. Judges, as usual, were headed by Jim “Doc” Edwards, with five from overseas and seven from the United States. Overseas judges were Masahiro Kate and Isao Matsui of Japan, Monte Malherbe of So. Africa, Geoff Franklin from England, and while Warren Hitchcox, our Canadian cousin, is hardly from overseas, we have placed him in this group. From the U.S.A., we find Travis McGinnis, Bob Upton, Dave Lane, Frank Schwartz, Ralph Brooke, Don Lowe, and Bill Johnson. Most, if not all, are members of the USPJA, and they represent what we believe to be the best possible grouping of Pattern judges. Wish I could remember who worked and who were the alternates, but, unfortunately, I can’t.
So we will leave it that they all did their best, particularly on finals day, when there were ten “doing their thing.” As usual, there was little complaining by the competitors, but some-thing new was added this year: we did have a formal letter of complaint from a spectator, our first such letter ever, claiming that the judges were partial to the “name” contestants. It’s hard to under-stand, as all contestants were “name” typen, and all have had their places in the lime-light! I am glad that the letter writer did take the time to let us know his beliefs, as it does show that we don’t go unnoticed.
Attempted something new this year: pulled a tape for both flights of the first round. Sat through the whole thing, turned an the recorder with the first “Now!,” turned it off an the “Turn Around!,” and then back with the subsequent “Now!” Gave the score for each judge, and a review of the tape only disclosed that most of the pilots were flying well, with a separation of a point or two be-tween the judges, and the average for Hanno Prettner’s first two flights was 8.20 per maneuver, Wolfgang Matt having an 8.21 average. Difference here is the total of the two flights, whereas the best flight of the two was selected for the final score. Hanno’s first flight of the round was his best, 335, and Wolfgang’s second flight of the round was his best, a 332. Just 3 points between them!
To follow this to its logical conclusion would require too much space, but I will take the No. 5 spot for the first round, and the last spot. Ivan’s average was 7.49 per maneuver, which was Moths of a point from Matt’s. Terry Cooper of England was low man for the round, and his average was 6.23, or 1.9 difference between his and the top score. So, my friends, it makes interesting listening, but discloses little, other than that the boys were on top of their game.
One final statistic to support what I am saying about the closeness with little spacing between the competitors: Hanno’s qualifying average was 8.49 per maneuver, and Wolf-gang’s was 8.26 per maneuver, or a total of .23 between them. Now we add all the• six flights for the three qualifying rounds, and we arrive at an 8.35 average for Hanno and an 8.06 for Wolfgang, with only .29 separating the pair. All these numbers to play around with explain why it was necessary to find the separator, and thus the Prototype Aerobatics ’78 T.O.C. program. The contest wasn’t without its problems for the contestants, and the worst was the flu bug that sailed about, with its first victim the Albanian prince, Tony Bonetti.
It was tough witnessing Tony, who was really up for this show, note his 10th-place finish, as at least four of the qualifying flights were made with him barely able to hold up his head. During one flight he had a fever of 103°, chills, and was about to throw up, and yet he still posted a good score. Spent most of his time, between rounds, flat on his back in the VIP mobile home for two days. Someday, Tony will be able to put it all together, and I hope I am there to congratulate him, as he deserves it! Another competitor shot down by the flu bug was Ivan Kristensen: while he was not quite as badly off as Tony, he made one full flight on the point of heaving throughout it. So Ivan, who coupled his crash the day be-fore the start and being ill with the flu, yet had a remarkable fifth-place finish. Who said my landsmen, the Danes, are not a sturdy group!
As usual. Hanno Prettner came fully prepared for the new and more difficult maneuvers. In previous years, he has added flaps, spoilers, etc., to aid the roll, snap, and spin maneuvers. This year, he had redesigned the spoilers so that they projected vertically, at 90 degrees to the upper and lower surfaces of the wing. A unique and very practical linkage is used, so that the spoilers will rotate and emerge from the top and bottom of the wing in an absolutely vertical plane. with 30 percent of the spoiler surface projecting from the top and 70 percent from the bottom. We will have the details for this arrangement in a future issue—watch for them.
To find superlatives to describe the venue and the competition is not easy, as most of the better ones have been used for T.O.C.’s of previous years, and there is no question that 1977 was a giant step further. Planned for the comfort of the pilots, judges, and spectators alike, it was something to see—the huge circus tent housing the food and bar arrangements, with tables for all. The jump suits for the competitors were something else. the brand new carpet for the pit area was a sparkling green; everything was painted with the Circus Circus colors, and the Hags of all nations were flying proudly from their poles. The banquet, with over five hundred attending, was more festive than ever, and as usual, I flubbed my opening lines, but all was forgotten when Mel Larson presented Bill Bennett with his electrified jacket with the many “quaint” sayings in electric lights. Mel played the electric switches for that jacket just like Liberace plays his piano.
The one total memory I shall always have is that of the complete surprise of John Brod-beck Sr., when called up to the dais to find out that he had been elected to the AMA Hall of Fame; Earl Witt of the academy was on hand to present it to him. In my own fashion,
In my own fashion, I had found out that John was to receive this fine award from the Academy of Model Aeronautics, but it hadn’t been officially noted as yet, and both Bill Bennett and 1 agreed that the perfect place for the presentation would be the banquet. John Worth and the others of the academy agreed, as well, so our secret was kept to the final moment, and old Johnny really broke up, as did the banqueters. Next total memory of the banquet was the standing ovation for Bill when I introduced him—almost three minutes of standing cheers and whistling—most spontaneous thing I have ever been part of. It was because of this I flubbed my lines and blew the introductions. Bill, in his quiet way, would say that “just standing up does it to me.”
Other memories are the usual fine support of members of the industry, of whom there were many—too many to attempt to spell out here, and I would surely forget someone, the usual fine field stands supplied by Robart to each competitor; the chromed “Z” pliers furnished by Custom Model Products of Massachusetts to each competitor; the many fine demonstration flights put on between rounds by Dieter Schlueter of Germany and his Bell 222 helicopter; the Snoopy Saucer and Red Baron flights, during which Snoopy managed to bag the Baron by shooting off his upper wing, causing much smoke and spinning (but the Baron made it safely back to earth each time); Charlie Hampton flying his Mabuchi-powered electric gliders; Bob Violett and his fabulous A4D, which is always a Show-stop-per; Joe Bridi, Bob Siegelkoff and Jerry Nelson putting on a Formula One race with their .60-size pylon racers, and everything going well until Jerry couldn’t quite hack a snap turn at the invisible No. 1 pylon and really dorked his pretty green Minnow.
Joe Bridi prevailed, as he put on many more demo flight for the four days. These sixty-powered, rather large Form One birds just might be the wave of the future—stable, fast enough, and very pretty. Can’t dose the demos with-out mention of Ken Bryan and his pair of Gobberson scale P-51’s. Huge, very realistic birds were something to see, and the whole ball of wax was wrapped up by Ed Keck and his fabulous Spinks Akromaster, the forerunner of years to come at the Tournament of Champions. To sum it all up would be to quote from an appreciative Upper New York State reader who stated in his letter that “every modeler should attend at least once, just to see the city, the hotels, the incredible flying field, and of course, the finest pilots in the world being judged by the best in the business.”
We can’t close without our congratulations to
| Place Pilot | Country | Prize Money |
| 1. Hanno Prettner | Austria | $13.000,00 |
| 2. Wolfgang Matt | Liechtenstein | $5.000,00 |
| 3. Dave Brown | USA | $4.000,00 |
| 4. Guenter Hoppe | Germany | $3.000,00 |
| 5. Ivan Kristensen | Canada | $2.500,00 |
| 6. Bruno Giezendanner | Switzerland | $1.500,00 |
| 7. Benito Bertolani | Italy | $1.300,00 |
| 8. Mark Radcliff | USA | $1.000,00 |
| 9. Steve Helms | USA | $800,00 |
| 10. Tony Bonetti | USA | $700,00 |
| 11. G. Naruke | Japan | $600,00 |
| 12. T. Okumura | Japan | $600,00 |
| 13. Jeff Tracey | Australia | $600,00 |
| 14. Dean Koger | USA | $600,00 |
| 15. Phil Kraft | USA | $600,00 |
| 16. Dennis Donohue | USA | $600,00 |
| 17. Bill Salkowski | USA | $600,00 |
| 18. Fred Kugel | USA | $600,00 |
| 19. Ron Chidgey | USA | $600,00 |
| 20. John Brink | South Africa | $600,00 |
| 21. Luis Castaneda | Mexico | $600,00 |
| 22. Terry Cooper | United Kingdom | $600,00 |
Text: Model Airplane News March 1978
Images: Guenter Hoppe
